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So I recently acquired an iPad from my dad after he decided to upgrade his. For the past 3 weeks, I have been struggling to figure what purpose an iPad would serve in my life. It seems to me that one good use would be to stream video and audio from my network-attached hard drive to it. My wife and I have been watching movies streamed to our laptops around the house for some time now. It took a bit of doing but Air Video seems to do the trick, at least for video and for the most part I like being able to watch a movie on my iPad while lounging in the sitting room or in bed.

I often catch up on the few shows I follow by watching them on Hulu. I have even installed the Hulu Desktop application on my laptop. It works wonderfully and the really cool part is that it works with my Apple Remote. It’s not uncommon for me to connect my MacBook to my home theater and watch shows on Hulu, though most of the time, I am watching on my laptop somewhere around the house.

When I got the iPad, I knew there was a Hulu app available and that it required a Hulu Plus subscription for $9.99/month. Hulu Plus promises more content available in more places (i.e. mobile). I figured I’d give it a spin so I plunked down my $10 after I got my invite and I though I was off the races. Boy was I wrong. Once I fired up Hulu on my iPad, I take a look at my queue. Imagine my surprise to find of the 5 shows I subscribe to, only 2 are available on my iPad. I think something must be wrong so I fire it up on my MacBook. Sure enough, I find that not everything available on Hulu is available when using it from a mobile device.

My queue in Hulu.

So what or where exactly is the Plus in Hulu Plus? I guess I’m supposed to be happy that my shows are now available in HD, which is cool, and that I can now watch complete seasons of some of my favorite shows, also cool. I don’t consider it a Plus when you don’t offer at least the content that is currently available on Hulu. To me when you at the Plus, I should get everything already available in Hulu, plus all the other cool stuff. Lesson learned. After one week, I’ve decided to cancel my Hulu Plus subscription. Another gotcha. Here’s the message I see when I click cancel.

Upon requesting to cancel my Hulu Plus subscription

They’ve already gotten my money for a one month subscription. Yet if I cancel today after a week of ‘service,’ I lose the service immediately. There is no mention of me getting a prorated refund, so I guess I have two options: 1) Wait until the last day of my billing cycle and hopefully remember to cancel my subscription; or 2) Cancel now and accept the fact that I paid for 30 days of service and only got 7. Somewhere in the vast Chrysler building, is a person who gets paid a lot more than me to think up stuff like this. I guess there’s a reason the rich stay rich.

Needless to say, I am completely underwhelmed by Hulu Minus, I mean Hulu Plus and I will be cancelling my subscription on Halloween.